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sustenance or tv jamboree?
Saw the season opener to Top Chef. They sort of had a "compulsories" section. Two contestants had a soufflé-off, two had a chicken picata showdown, two had lasagna mano a mano, etc., etc.
So the soufflé folks didn't really know how to make them. One said he hadn't done one in twenty years. He at least understood the magnitude of his failure. When his vaguely mexican inspired creation failed, he said "My nachos just didn't cut it".
Over in the crab-cake fisticuffs, one of the guys didn't know the recipe for mayo. WTF? How can you go into a Top Chef contest lacking such a fundamental building block of making sauces? It's like not knowing how to deglaze a pan.
I guess I haven't seen the early elimination rounds in previous years. I think they need to cut the field in half pretty quickly.